Authors:

Xuxia Yao(Georgia Institute of Technology)

Alejandro Rey(McGill University)

Jung Park(Georgia Institute of Technology)

Mohan Srinivasarao(Georgia Institute of Technology)

Lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals have a wide coexistence temperature
range where the isotropic and nematic phases are in equilibrium. Negative
tactoids (isotropic droplets in the nematic medium) or positive tactoids
(nematic droplets in the isotropic medium) form and grow as the nuclei of
the new phases in the biphasic region. We studied the growth of tactoids as
a function of temperature, the prolate shape of tactoids as well as their
thermal fluctuation, based on which the viscoelastic properties of chromonic
liquid crystals were obtained.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2012.MAR.D51.1